Archive for the 'Practice Notes' Tag Under 'Lakers' Category

No NBA team has ever started a season with a 1-4 record and gone on to win the NBA championship. Bad starts traditionally haven't resulted in great finishes.

The Lakers, owners of a 1-4 record, aren't buying into conventional wisdom, though. They remain steadfast that this stretch of poor performances and one victory against the Detroit Pistons, is a phase.

"There's always data and history," Pau Gasol said after Thursday's practice. "No team has ever won a championship being 0-8 in the preseason, either, so there's gong to be plenty of those things going forward. But we can't think about all those little things. We just have to make sure we get better every day, improve as a team and that we are going in the right direction.

"We just need a couple of positive games."

The Lakers have a shot a putting together a few "positive games" with a six-game home stand that begins Friday against Golden State at Staples Center. The Lakers' next seven games are considered winnable, their toughest opponent during the stretch San Antonio next Tuesday. The Clippers beat the Spurs on Wednesday.

Neither Kobe Bryant nor Steve Nash took part in the Lakers' non-contact scrimmage Monday. Both received treatment after the team watched film of Sunday's victory and did a walk through.

Coach Mike Brown said Bryant didn't further aggravate his strained right foot after scoring 15 points in 31 minutes against Detroit.

Nash, who suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left fibula, could be out a week, 10 days or a month depending on several reports. The veteran point guard was injured last Wednesday when he was kneed during the Portland game and has missed the past two games.

The Lakers officially are saying Nash will be out a week, but other publications claim he will miss either the next 7-10 days or 3-4 weeks.

Lakers coach Mike Brown said Sunday he will not hurry Nash back, which could “compromise his long-term health. … We'll just wait and play it out from there.”

Steve Nash limped out of the locker room Thursday sporting a bandage below his left knee. Although it was painful and Nash did not practice, he said the contusion on his lower left leg was not serious.

He is listed as doubtful for Friday's game against the Clippers, and Steve Blake would start if Nash is unable to play.

"Luckily, it's not anything major or structural. It's just a contusion in a bad area," he said. "Maybe I'm too optimistic to say doubtful, but it's definitely touch and go."

Nash, 38, suffered the injury when he bumped knees with Portland rookie Damian Lillard in the second quarter Wednesday. He tried to return to the court after halftime, but managed to play just one additional minute before heading to the locker room for the night.

"By the time I got off of the training table, there was almost no time on the clock to warm up at halftime. So I ran out there and got some shots up, but I didn't have any time to test it laterally," Nash said. "As soon as I did some lateral movement it, (it) just gave out on me.

The season hasn't even started and Dwight Howard already has been waving the cautionary flag. The new Lakers center said fans need to be patient in the early going as the team's chemistry comes together.

“I know everybody wants it right now, right now,” Howard said. “But we want to win in June, that's what counts.”

Some of the anxiety stems from the Lakers 0-8 preseason record and the high number of turnovers that have marked each game. The other worrisome factor is that the starting five have only played one preseason games together; a foot injury to Kobe Bryant and Howard's recovery from spinal surgery have slowed the process.

"We don't expect to win every game and be 82-0,” Howard said. “But we do expect, say by midseason, that everybody will have the offense down pat and we'll be flowing."

Lakers guard Steve Blake did not practice because he was experiencing flu-like symptoms and Matt Barnes' surgically repaired knee was giving him problems and could not participate fully.

-- Kobe Bryant admires the San Antonio Spurs and is friends with many of their players. But that doesn't interfere with his competitive spirit. " I love those guys man, but at the same time I want to beat the (heck) out of them. And vice versa," Bryant said. "But I have a lot of respect for them and how they do it."

The questions kept coming at Phil Jackson on Monday, inquires about the state of the Lakers after dropping back-to-back games against Sacramento on Friday and Boston on Sunday. At one point, he said perhaps he should leave the Lakers' training facility.

The Lakers coach didn't walk off the court but instead answered every probing question, even jokingly mentioning the word "suicide" when asked what the Lakers needed to change in their approach when they face Houston on Tuesday.

Normally, Phil Jackson allows his veteran starters to take it easy during practice, stressing the need to rest their bodies over building team chemistry.

That ususally leaves a depleted squad trying to simulate game situations that don't always work well come game time, a fact driven home Tuesday when the Lakers were embarrassed by Milwaukee.

So when Jackson saw his entire team minus injured Theo Ratliff -- decked out in new practice jerseys -- he ordered a nearly two-hour practice Thursday at the Lakers training facility that included everyone -- from Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to Andrew Bynum and Derek Fisher.

The team focused on running drills and game situations early then engaged in full-court drills in preparation for Saturday's game against Miami at Staples Center.

"Hopefully we'll start learning how to play together and incorporate 'Drew and Joe Smith," Jackson said.

Coach Phil Jackson had "kind of" pegged Thanksgiving for Andrew Bynum's return date, a week or so earlier than the Lakers center first mentioned. Bynum had said his surgically repaired knee would be close to 100 percent by early December, even though Jackson said as recent as nine days ago that the targeted holiday date was "reachable."

That doesn't seem so reachable now.

Jackson said Saturday that he doesn't forsee Bynum fully practicing with the team until they return from their three-game trip next week when they head to Milwaukee (Tuesday), Detroit (Wednesday) and Minnesota (Friday) -- Thanksgiving week. That means Bynum probably won't be ready to play a game until some time in December.

Bynum's only activity over the past week has been limited shooting exercises and leg strengthening exercises with Lakers physical therapist Alex McKechnie. He did both Saturday and continues to be off-limits to the media.

It was only one game, 22 minutes, a big third quarter and 10 points. Yet Steve Blake's contributions in Tuesday's season-opening victory loomed large afterward and even 12 hours later when the team finished with a short practice in El Segundo.

Blake, who joined the Lakers this off-season as a free agent, was again a focal point of TV cameras and reporters' notebooks Wednesday for his steady play in the fourth quarter that enabled the Lakers to hold off Houston, 112-110, in front of a packed Staples Center crowd. Blake finished with 10 points on three-for-five shooting, making three of four 3-point shots. He also had three assists.

But the low-key Blake took the attention in stride, much like his assimilation on the star-studded team.

"I just try to play basketball the way I've played my whole life," said Blake at the Lakers' training facility in El Segundo. "And if you work hard and concentrate you should go out there and make good plays.